Air conditioning system



May 26; 1959 D. D. WlLE ET AL AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEM 2 Sheets-Sheet 1Filed Nov. 7. 1955 llHIIIIIHIIWNIWW INVENTORS paw/5c 0. MICE 6/0200,eaeser 0040/ 'IIIIlI/IIIIIII y 26, 1959 8 D. D. WILE ET AL 2,887,856

AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEM Filed Nov. 7,- 1955 2 SheetsSheet 2 cau asssaema-E I'm/e '79 cwm-w/sae m: e gzzgsvau 5 9 PUMP mmwessoe r Lars-7eErmvrae INVENTIORS,

HTTOQA/EY S United States Patent AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEM Daniel D. Wile,Whittier, and Shizuo Robert Adachi, Glendale, Calif, assignors toRefrigeration Engineering, Inc., Los Angeles, cane, a corporation ofCalifornia Application November 7,1955, Serial No. 545,218 1 Claim. (Cl.62 -426) This invention relates to air conditioning units and is moreparticularly concerned with the construction of an air conditioning unitof simple, inexpensive form and which will operate in such manner thatit may be installed in a room and will operate at a greatly reducednoise level. We have discovered that we may be able to operate an airconditioning unit of simple form including a casing in which the heatexchange or cooling coil is positioned and wherein we provide apropeller blade type fan for drawing the air into the casing anddistributing the same over the coil and discharging the same into theroom to be air conditioned and wherein said apparatus functions at agreatly reduced noise level when the axis of the fan is positioned offcenter in the casing or at a position Which we prefer to refer to as theapproximate center of the involute space within the casing.

Other objects and advantages of our invention it is believed will beapparent from the following description hereof as the same isillustrated in the accompanying drawings.

Figure l is a fragmental side elevation illustrating a space to be airconditioned and having adjacent thereto a closet space Within which theair conditioning unit embodying our invention is positioned.

Figure 2 is a front elevation of the structure illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 3 is an enlarged elevation of the air conditioning unit embodyingmy invention.

Figure 4 is a view similar to Figure 3 illustrating the unit in explodedcondition.

Figure 5 is a top plan view thereof.

Figure 6 is a diagrammatic view of the refrigeration system employed inconjunction with the air conditioning system embodying our invention.

Figure 7 is a modified form of refrigeration or cooling unit applicablefor the cooling of water for use in the air conditioning systemembodying our invention.

In the preferred embodiment of our invention as illustrated in theaccompanying drawings, we have shown the air conditioning systemembodying our invention as applicable for both direct expansionrefrigeration and water cooling.

In either case, the coolant whether it be the expanding refrigerant orthe refrigerant water, is passed through a coil 2 which is mounted inthe casing 1. A typical refrigeration system is illustrated in Figure 6,wherein it is shown that the refrigerant liquid from the storage tank 3is passed through the expansion valve 4 leading to the coil 2 in whichthe said liquid is expanded to cool the coil. The gas leaving the coil 2passes to the compressor 5 in which the gas is compressed and leavingthe compressor 5 is passed through the condenser 6 to condense the gasto a liquid prior to its return to the storage tank 3. In the case ofthe modification illustrated in Figure 7, the evaporator 2 is used torefrigerate or cool water in a tank 8 and the water from the tank 8 iscirculated through the coil 2a through the medium of suitable pipeconnections 9.

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The element embodying our invention is more particularly related to themeans employed for circulating and cooling the air as the air is passedover either the coil 2 or 2a. This unit includes the casing 1 which hasan inlet 10 and an outlet 11, the inlet and outlet being upon oppositesides of the coil 2. The casing' 1 is of any desirable construction andis herein illustrated as rectangular in form where the inlet is in thebottom rear portion of the casing and the outlet is at the from verticalface. Mounted within the casing 1 in position to draw air through theinlet 10, distribute the same over the coil 2 and discharge the samethrough the outlet 11, is a blade type propeller fan 12, which is drivenby a suitable electric motor 13. As illustrated, this assembly issupported upon a face plate 14 which is removably positioned in theopening 10. For this purpose the forward edge of the plate 14 isprovided with a right angle bend 15 which fits over the horizontal rearedge of a cover plate 16 so that as the plate 14 is thus supported atits forward edge, it may be hinged upwardly to fit ,over the opening 10and be secured in position by any suitable fastening means such as thescrews 17.

There may be fitted upon the face of the plate 14 a filter assembly 18through which the air to be conditioned is drawn. This filter assemblymay be of any suitable or desirable form and its precise constructionforms no part of the present invention.

The axis of the supporting drive shaft 19 of the fan 12 is supported inthe casing 1 in position offset from the center of the casing and in aposition which we define as the involute center of the casing. This wehave found to be of great importance for the reasons that it enables usto have more perfect air distribution over the pipes of the coil 2 whilemaintaining a substantially noiseless operation of the fan incirculating the air. We define the offset position as beingsubstantially at the involute center of the casing 1 for the reason thatwe found that in shrouding the interior of the casing 1 as illustratedin the dotted lines 20 to form an involute air passage, and mounting theshaft of the fan 12 on the center of this involute casing, that weobtained a very quiet fan operation with a more perfect air distributionover the coil 2. Further development showed us that on removal of theshroud indicated by the dotted lines 20, that the operation remained thesame even though the interior of the casing 1 was truly of rectangularcross section. With the fan position as shown, the apparent result is todevelop an involute air passage where the spaces which would ordinarilylie outside of such involute passage merely become dead air spaces anddo not materially add to or detract from the operation in so far as thedevelopment of a satisfactory air distribution over the coil 2 and aquiet fan operation are concerned. As illustrated in Figures 1 and 2 ofthe drawings, we prefer to mount the casing 1 in an elevated positionwithin a closet or the like, preferably above or to one side of the door21 and to provide a suitable louver 22 over an outlet opening throughthe wall of the door 21 so that the vanes of the said louver may becorrectly angled to insure the desired air distribution throughout thespace 23 which is to be air conditioned. At the lower portion of thecloset and if desired, through an opening formed in the door 21, asecond louvered passage 24 is provided having a suitable louverstructure therein to insure that the air is drawn from the lower portionof the space 23 as it is returned through the closet to the inlet 10 ofthe casing 1.

The important development produced by our invention is the provision ofan air distributing and conditioning unit which may be mounted in acloset or other space adjacent a room such as the space 23 and whichwill operate easily and effectually to circulate and cool the air in theroom 23 and at the same time will operate Patented May 26, 1959 at avery low noise level, being substantially inaudible. We have here setforth that the fan 12 is operated in 0&- set position and at relativelylow speeds. We prefer that the fan operate at speeds of between 400 and700 r.p.m.

Having fully described our invention, it is to be understood that we donot wish to be limited to the details herein set forth, but ourinvention'is of the full scope of the appended claim.

We claim:

An air conditioning apparatus, comprising: a relatively fiatsubstantially rectangular casing structure having an outlet opening inan end wall, and an inlet opening in its bottom wall adjacent theopposite end wall, said inlet opening being'displaced from the center ofsaid casing structure toward one of the side walls, the center of saidinlet opening substantially coinciding with an involute figure tangentto theside walls of said casing structure and said opposite end wall; acooling unit"disposed' within said casing structure adjacent said outletopening; and a propeller blade-type of fan mounted in said inlet openingfor drawing air upwardly ..therethrough for horizontal flow to the wallsof said casing structure and discharge through said outlet.

References Cited inthe file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS

